North America Defence News

US; DARPA Awards Mobile Force UAV protection program

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Phase 1 agreements for its Mobile Force Protection (MFP) program to three firms to develop real-time protection of ground and maritime convoys by advancing technology to quickly neutralize hostile unmanned aircraft systems.

To help speed development and facilitate interoperability of MFP’s capabilities, DARPA has selected the U.S. Army’s Maneuver Aviation and Fires Integration Application (MAFIA) service-oriented architecture as the common framework for the data-fusion engine, decision-aid algorithms, and user interface, as well as the backbone for the teams’ command and control (C2) software. Already fielded by several Defense Department (DoD) programs of record, MAFIA supports multiple operating systems and provides services, libraries, common applications, and a software development kit for performer integration.These features will facilitate creation of MFP’s envisioned plug-and-play system capable of integrating new sensors and emerging technologies.

In addition to all DoD Services, DARPA is working closely on MFP with the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The MFP program is aiming for three phases punctuated by open-air demonstrations involving increasingly sophisticated threats and scenarios. The goal is for the technology demonstration system to show initial functionality at the end of Phase 1 and progressively improve, culminating in a full-capability demonstration on a moving vehicle or vessel by the end of Phase 3.